Newest K-9 plays the Sherwood Police Department

By Diana Page Jordan, for The Sherwood Sun

SHERWOOD, Ore. — Miss B, the Sherwood Police Department’s newest K-9, came from a long line of award-winning competitive dogs. Officer Lucas Spencer, her canine handler, says Miss B gave up that championship career to become a police dog, because “she had so much energy.” 

Miss B turned eight a few months ago, two years after joining Sherwood’s police department. Officer Paul Mattson, the Public Information Officer, says Miss B has already made more than fifty-captures. He says the department would like to have a second canine in the coming year. 

Miss B is trained, with her keen sense of smell, to find people -- suspects, missing children, runaway juveniles, or elderly people with Alzheimer’s or dementia. Not all police departments in Washington County have canines, so when canines are needed on the scene, the closest will join the search for suspects. Sherwood has had canines for thirty years now.   

Officer Spencer trains Miss B at least a couple of hours every day, using positive reinforcement. “That is crucial, that bond with the dogs. You trust the dog. The dog trusts you.” Spencer uses a stern voice or a playful kid’s voice, so that the dog knows what kind of situation it is.  

They use a stuffed toy in the training, and then Miss B gets to keep the toy as a reward. Officer Spencer says he’ll also take an old phone and throw it in a construction site or in a residential neighborhood so that Miss B will track and find that evidence, using the human odor on the object. He says obedience is the foundation so that the dog stays focused on tracing the evidence, despite the lights, sirens, people yelling, and civilians walking by. 

One of the most remarkable episodes was when a guy allegedly stole merchandise from the Fred Meyer store in Tualatin. Officer Spencer says, “The guy ran into the wetlands. Miss B and I followed him, and I was in up to my neck. In training, we saw a lot of pictures of scenarios to prepare us as much as possible for harsh conditions, but it was really different from anything I’ve experienced before. But Miss B wasn’t fazed at all.”

He says they followed the suspect out of the water into blackberry bushes, getting cut up. “To see her determination ‘hey, we’ve got a job to do. We’ve got to catch this guy’ was really inspiring.” Miss B ran into the bushes after the suspect, tearing down trees, even though she was exhausted. She sniffed down the suspect, popping up her head, and started barking, apprehending the suspect.  

And Spencer says, “I was super happy with her. It was inspiring to see how amazing these creatures are, how much they love working, how much they love helping us, and how much they love doing their job.”    

Miss B got her reward. Spencer says, “She was so tired, I picked her up and carried her back across the water.” 

Diving deeper into the training, Officer Spencer says he and Miss B began their career together with a three-month, 400-hour canine school. Mainly, they train dogs using human odor, which is a key to apprehension. If they’re trying to track a bad guy, officers have to read the dog’s behavior, especially because the wind or weather will spread out human particles. 

For Officer Spencer, he says, “It’s all about building relationships with the community, and the dogs are a tool to build that trust.”

That can be key in breaking up human trafficking, he says, “which is a huge problem down the I-5 corridor.”

Officer Mattson says, “The beautiful thing about Miss B and the relationship Officer Spencer has with her, is that there are a lot of canines out there who aren’t super-friendly with people, so there are a lot of canine teams that can’t be used for community engagements and can’t be used to bridge that gap. But Miss B is super-friendly and just loves pets and loves attention. It’s a great tool that we have.” 

It’s not that dogs can tell a good guy from a bad guy. Officer Spencer says, “Dogs track human order and then they listen to their handler.” 

Most dogs are ready to retire at age ten, according to Officer Spencer, who says “Even though Miss B is eight years old now, she’s young at heart and I think she’ll be working for multiple years to come.”

They celebrate their canines’ birthdays at the Sherwood Police Department. Officer Spencer says in January, when Miss B turned eight, his wife, Hailey Spencer, brought Miss B dog ice cream cones and new toys. “She came out with me and hung out all day with us on Miss B’s birthday.”